UEN's Homeroom welcomes Sam Mitchell, an school technology specialist from the Granite School District to discuss the impact that podcasts are having on learning. We share our favorite podcasts, provide tips for finding great podcasts, and explore ideas for learning with podcasts.
UEN's Homeroom welcomes Sam Mitchell, an school technology specialist from the Granite School District to discuss the impact that podcasts are having on learning. We share our favorite podcasts, provide tips for finding great podcasts, and explore ideas for learning with podcasts.
Hello, and welcome to UEN's Homeroom. I'm Jared Covili.
And I'm Dani Sloan. We are your homeroom teachers.
This podcast is UEN's chance to tell your stories and talk about the issues impacting Utah's amazing teachers.
We plan to feature different educators and leaders from across the state of Utah in a fun and informative way in a bi-monthly podcast.
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In today's episode, we're going to be talking about podcasting for learning. So Dani, podcasts are everywhere. I know around our office, this has been a real popular topic. We love to talk about what we're listening to.
Yeah, we definitely love to have the leg-up on each other on something that we've learned from a podcast or a new really scary podcast that we're listening to.
And not only for us, but also for a lot of our teacher friends, it's been fun to see and find out about the different things that they're learning about, as they listen to podcasts on their own.
Absolutely. And that's kind of our idea with this podcast. It's not just to share the great things that are happening in our state, but also maybe teach a thing or two here or there when people are in their commute to work. So that's kind of our intent with this podcast.
So today, we're going to be learning from one of our friends in the educational world. Dani, why don't you introduce us to Sam?
All right. Sam Mitchell is a UCET board member and a school technology specialist from Granite School District. She collaborates with teachers, provides tech training, and works with elementary students in West Valley City, Utah. Before that, in another life, she was a fifth-grade teacher in South Salt Lake at a Title I school with a really diverse population, where I actually got the privilege of working with her. In her spare, unplugged time, you will find her lost in a book, baking, running after her rambunctious toddler, who just turned 2, or being adventurous in the Utah outdoors.
Sam, welcome to UEN's Homeroom. We're glad to have you.
Happy to be here.
So we have a hard-hitting way that we like to start every podcast. We've got some very in-depth questions from our studio audience. Are you ready?
Don't be nervous.
I'm ready. Throw them at me.
OK. So our first question comes via our first participant.
What is your favorite kind of dessert?
What's my favorite kind of dessert? It depends on the season. Right now, it has to be peach cobbler. But those big cookies that those new companies are making just call my name all the time.
I believe you wanted to be bribed with a crumble cookie for this.
--chips and crumble, and the ones that make all those big, giant cookies. Oh, delicious.
OK, so now we know it depends on the season. Let's find out. Second question--
What is your favorite way to eat pizza?
My favorite way to eat pizza? Isn't there a normal way to eat pizza? Not folded, not-- the crust back, just normal, I guess.
So you're a very traditional pizza eater, is what you're telling us.
She's a traditionalist.
OK.
Very much.
Our third and final question is--
What is your favorite color?
Oh, my favorite color? Probably-- oh, my goodness. Blue-- I think that's a safe one. I love a lot of them. But blue is a consistent, good color.
Well, that'll make you very popular up here on campus with us since we're at the University of Utah. But we'll accept your answer anyway.
It's a good thing you're over the phone and not up here. You might be kicked out.
Well, I didn't know the color choice would be that negative.
You live in Utah, Sam. All right. Well, we'll go ahead and get started with our conversation about podcasts for learning. I know this is something that you are very passionate about. So currently, what podcasts do you listen to?
That's a long list. I'm going to give you the short list.
OK.
Because I was looking through my feed of what I have waiting for me to listen to. And there's just a lot. And so let me narrow it down for you.
Every morning, I listen to Up First, by NPR, which is just a 10-minute unbiased news of the day-- really short. And then there's weekly podcasts like Note to Self. The Longest Shortest Time is a fun parenting podcast.
If I'm more into looking at some stories or human-interest things or real-life, informative podcasts, I listen to This American Life, Hidden Brain. I'm just listening to one actually today from a new podcast called The Side Door, which is a Smithsonian podcast. The one I'm listening to is about the curse of the Hope Diamond.
My husband, when he's in the car with me, we like to listen to true crime or other podcasts that we can toss up and talk about. And as a teacher, I come across various ones. Coffee and Crayons is a brand-new back-to-school podcast that I just found. 10-minute Teacher with Vicki Davis is another teacher podcast that I listen to.
Very popular with a lot of our teachers, yeah.
So the ones that you listed off, why are they engaging? Why do they keep you coming back for more?
Honestly, a lot of the ones that I keep going back to are the quality ones. They're people that are experts in their field. Or they go and talk to experts. It's well done. There's good editing.
And it interests me. Whether it's about technology or dealing with students or even kids, they're things that I can relate to with my own life. If it's something that I'm just curious about or want to learn more about the topic, it's like there's this endless supply of knowledge that's out there. I can delve more into any topic that I want to talk about.
And there's, again, the really fun, true-crime, scary-- other different podcasts. That's more of a social aspect. You want to talk to people about it. You want to talk to your friends that are listening to the same thing. So it's just engaging, depending on what you're doing.
So Sam, I'm curious. You've got a lot of variety in the different kinds of podcasts that you're listening to. When you get into the iTunes store, or you go online, and you start looking for a podcast that you might be interested in, what are some of your criteria? How do you find a new podcast? For somebody who's never really done this before, what would be some of your advice for what to look for when you're getting started?
I guess the first thing you would do is maybe go to The Browser. I like how they have featured podcasts. So these are usually newer podcasts or new seasons of different podcast shows. And they have the top charts, which I have usually found to be pretty accurate in the way of, oh, wow, that was really well done. No wonder that's number four or five on the list.
I also search by categories. That's not always the best way, I find, to be looking for something I want to. They have a whole education category.
But as a teacher that works with elementary students, it's hard to find the right podcast there. So I don't always look through their store. I will go online and start looking at what other people recommend.
How might you do that? I'm just kind of curious. I've tried to do that myself, just looking for other things that people are talking about. What are some of the places you've gone to get a sense of what people are talking about that you think you might be interested in?
Pinterest.
OK.
Sometimes, that's an easier way, elementary-wise. I will honestly just Google it. If I'm looking for something for my students, I will just say, all right, what are some elementary-appropriate podcasts on science? And I usually find articles that have been done that have done the research for me because I don't have that kind of time.
And if it's some that I'm personally interested in, there's different Facebook groups that I'm a part of. There always just seems to be a new thread of tell me your favorite podcasts. And people will just chime in. So I guess it's just the communities that you're around, whether it's Twitter, Facebook-- whatever way you feel comfortable with searching for information.
Yeah, I think that's a great tip for our audiences-- to crowdsource it to the people that you connect with online, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
So I know anytime I learn something new, whether it be a tech tip or just something cool like on Radiolab, I get so excited. And I just wish I had a classroom to share it with. Have you used podcasts with students? You mentioned that you're searching, as an elementary school teacher, for podcasts. What have you done with podcasting and your students that you work with?
So I've done it actually in [INAUDIBLE] When I was a fifth-grade teacher, I could actually have my students create podcasts. So we would have a podcast as a whole class.
And I would break them into groups. And they would all be in charge of a certain episode, I guess. And each one was a learning concept. And they really took to that and loved it. So I love the idea of creating them into your classroom.
But consuming them, again, it takes the way of you really have to find what you're looking for. It has to hit you. It's usually something I'm listening to. And it's like, I want to share this one bit, this one short story, to the kids and have it be a writing prompt or something-- a good conversation-starter.
And so it kind of just involves listening, being aware of what's out there, and listening to the various podcasts. And for example, This American Life has great shorter stories. They usually do three or four into one episode. And taking that little bit.
So not just saying, all right, students, here's this one podcast. You can just listen to the whole episode. It's going through and picking out the pieces that will fit your classroom.
There are a lot of podcasts out there for children, whether it's book clubs for kids. Or there's this really fun one called Tumble. It's like a science podcast. So I've taken a science podcast, an episode of that, and shared part of it as part of the introduction to a science lesson.
So I like the idea-- you're sharing a couple of things that are getting me thinking here, Sam. One thing that you're talking about is there's times when you're looking for materials that are definitely age-appropriate. But then you're also looking for materials that are probably more for an adult audience, and looking for ways that you can introduce that to kids.
Can you tell me a little bit about what's been the benefit of taking some of those stories that are not necessarily for a child audience and introducing those to kids? What's been the experience for the kids?
Very into it, because they're not often talked to like normal kids-- normal adults. They're not treated that way. They think everything-- most people, I find, think they just need to dumb it down to them. And they don't.
Students can comprehend up to two grade levels above their reading level. Most students can understand. Most students can improve their comprehension by listening to these. If you have ELL students, they're going to have a higher understanding level of the audio versus written text.
So to me, students can get it. They get this. They hear a story, and they can relate to it if it's a human-interest story because they are human.
And as a teacher, you have to facilitate that environment to be able to understand, if it's a story, about what's going on in a different country. It's like, these are people, too. Can you imagine what's going on with their lives?
And it's just having them connect to things that are outside their world. They can do it. They can understand it. And we need to be able to recognize that they can do that.
Yeah, I love that idea. I mean, it's one of the things that we're always talking to kids about. We want them to experience the world through some of our curriculum focus.
And here's what I mean by that. You're listening to a podcast. And all of a sudden, you come across a story that you say, man, that would be so great for my students to hear this because it connects to what we're learning in class.
And then you're showing them that same skill, right? By bringing that story to them, you're making real-world connections with the things that you're listening to for your own entertainment, for your own learning. But you're relating it back to the class.
And that's, as teachers, what we're always trying to do. We're trying to connect things back into our objective. And so great teachers can pretty much pick anything and make it relatable to the kids, but also make sure that they are checking off those content objectives boxes.
Absolutely. And I think, going back to what you were both saying, we so often want our students to be learning everywhere. And this is how people learn now. When I want to learn something, I go to YouTube. I listen to a podcast. And this is just how we learn in 2018. And I think it's great that you're bringing this to the classroom.
One of our tech trainers, Shannon Ririe, Shannon Ririe Lyon, has said that she would use some of the old iPod Touches that she had in classrooms that you couldn't really update any longer, but you could still download podcasts on. And so that's a great use for old technology that might be collecting dust in your classrooms. Might be some really nice paperweights around there that you could put podcasts on for your students to use and utilize in that way.
Those old iPods, too, Dani, also can record audio files.
Say what? So they could make their own podcasts?
They can make their own, yeah.
Sam, such a good idea.
I put this poster up for all my teachers every year. It's just like how audio promotes literacy. Because sometimes, we just want them to learn how to read. But really, they also need to learn how to listen.
So it just talks about all these infographics of how children who are better listeners are also better learners, and how it increased their test scores by 21%. It shows them pronunciations. These kids learn 85% of what they learn by listening.
I love that, Sam. And I remember some of your fifth graders-- their podcasts that you shared with me. And they were hilarious. And they were multi-language learners.
And they were fabulous. They were well-produced. And they were funny. And they were practicing all of their language skills and reflecting on their learning and doing an excellent job.
And some of those kids could barely write. And yet, they could turn around and give me content on fifth-grade level. So it just was a great indicator to what they were learning about.
Absolutely. All right, let's maybe wrap it up with what would you recommend to educators who haven't done anything with podcasts? They haven't listened to podcasts. They don't know where to start with podcasts. This podcast might be their introduction to podcasts. Where do you start? Where do you get going?
And if that is the case, thank you for listening.
I was going to say, if they're listening to this, they've started somewhere. I would say here's the thing. Within the last five to eight years, podcasts have exploded. And so really, it can feel like you're drowning if you don't have a focus.
And so I sometimes feel like I'm drowning. And then I remind myself that I don't have to listen to all of this. I just want to listen to the news. I just want to listen to a weekly story on This American Life. Maybe I'm really into sports. And so it's football season coming up. And so I want to all of the football. Can you tell that I don't listen to sports podcasts?
It didn't come across that way.
You can choose what you want to listen to. But start somewhere. And there are certain podcasts that you actually do need to start at the beginning, whether it's a storyline podcast, where you really do need to start at episode one, so look forward and understand what's going on. Or sometimes you can just jump into them wherever you want. So it's understanding, just looking at each podcast, and is it something that I have to start at square one? Or can I just jump in wherever I want to listen?
And just try something small, like those 10-minute teacher shows or like the news that are 10 minutes-- something small to get you used to navigating and listening and getting used to how a lot of those format are. I lose interest in the podcasts that are really long and take a lot of my time because I like to diversify, obviously, what I'm listening to. And it's hard to focus on just one thing if it's two hours long.
I think that's excellent advice.
If you do have kids, though, there's some great ones. Start with what they would be interested, in like Storynory. Or Tumble is another great podcast for kids. So listening to them in the car with your kiddos too is a great way to get your feet wet
I love that idea.
Yeah, anytime when you can maximize two things at once, right? Where you're taking advantage of time that normally, you're not really doing much-- meaning it's kind of dead time in the car or gardening or something like that. Great advice-- ways that you can maximize two things at the same time.
That's kind of what I do. I listen to it in the car when I go to work. I will do it if I am working out. It's at those times where I can be reflective. And I can not have to deal with anybody else around me. And I can listen to these stories that make me feel connected to the world around me.
Yeah. I like to listen to podcasts instead of working out, while I'm pretending to work out, so.
Oh, that's a great idea, too.
All right. Well, Sam, thank you so much for being on our first episode of UEN's Homeroom. We super appreciate you.
I feel very honored. So thank you for having me.
Thanks, Sam.
A podcast on podcasts.
Very self-reflective of us, yes.
All right, thank you, Sam.
Thanks, Dani. Bye.
So Dani, do you want to give our audience a tech tip today?
I mean, do we have to?
Well, I mean, this is a podcast kind of about technology.
I'm tired. Do you have a tech tip for today?
I mean, I guess if I have to, I can come up with one.
I mean, we could maybe do a tech tip.
OK. Our lazy teachers tech tip for today is, as you're listening to your podcast, if you're pressed for time, like many teachers are, here's a little idea for you. One of the tools that most people don't know about on your podcasting tools down at the bottom is you can change the speed at which you listen to your podcasts.
Most of the time when you listen to your podcasts, you're listening at a traditional one time speed, meaning you're listening to it at normal speed. But if you're pressed for time, you can change that speed to maybe time and a half. Or if you're a super-fast listener, you could even double-time your speed of your podcast.
If you just switch your speed to time and a half, this means that you can listen to a normal podcast, a 60-minute podcast, in approximately 40 minutes. You won't believe how much more podcasting you can hear just by changing the speed slightly. Sure, the podcast audio will change a little bit. But you'll be able to understand most of what you're hearing at the normal audio rates. But you'll be able to catch much more of the content by just upping your audio speed slightly.
That's pretty life-changing.
Have you ever heard that before, Dani?
I have never heard that before. That's a pretty good--
And if you really want to make them sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks, you can go to double speed.
Have you done that? Have you done double speed?
I am not that fast a listener. So I can't do that. But I will traditionally listen to a lot of audio on 1.25 or 1.5 speed.
Is that how you get through more podcasts than I do?
Yes. And I will tell you, the same trick works--
Cheater!
The same trick works on YouTube videos, if you're listening to lectures. A lot of lectures, if you listen to them on 1 and 1/2 speed, you can watch like a YouTube video from a professor or something in about-- I was listening to a 13-minute video. I watched it in about eight minutes.
Cheater.
Not cheating. It's science. So there's our lazy teacher tech tip of the day.
All right, well, that's it for today. Homeroom is over. Jared, any final thoughts?
I can't believe we finally finished our very first episode of UEN's Homeroom. How did it go, Dani?
I think it went really, really well. How long have we been talking about doing this?
This has been in the process for about a year and a half.
Way to go, team. We finally did it.
Yeah. Hopefully, you all enjoyed listening. And hopefully, you'll come back for our second episode, whenever that lands on your airwaves.
All right. Homeroom is over. Class dismissed.
See you next time.
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